Re: windows-1251 language environment

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    See `locale-language-names' and comments in it.  The major problem is
    interpreting the codeset part in terms of a coding system since the
    names are quite variable.

    I don't know how the equivalent is supposed to work in MS Windows &
    al.

It sounds like you are saying that there's a more-or-less standard
for GNU and Unix systems, but that Windows is different.  Is that right?

    > In general, I would prefer to have some Emacs-native way to do set
    > these things, rather than rely on an external data type such as a
    > locale name which is not defined naturally in Emacs terms.

    If you don't try to interpret it, Emacs probably won't behave
    consistently with other programs.

We are miscommunicating.  Of course Emacs should pay attention to the
locale, as well as it reliably can do so.  What I said is that Emacs
should not *rely on* an external mechanism such as locales for
customization.  It should provide an Emacs-natural customize mechanism
*also*.